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History
In The Beginning Great Space Race (2,237 - 2,262 A.D) At around 2,237 A.D. the nations of the Chinese Empire and Indian Republic both sought to achieve political and scientific success with space missions beyond the Sol System. Although no long-endurance missions was conducted beyond the system, thousands of separate missions was launched from colonies throughout the Sol System, mainly around Uranus and Neptune. By 2,254 A.D, the race had been joined by the United Federation while the Indian Republic was still three years away from launching their own mission. As such, the Chinese Empire's Vision mission led the Chinese to become the first race to successfully travel beyond the Sol System towards Alpha Centurai. This was closely followed by the United Federation's Voyager mission which exited the system two months later. Expansion into the Home Worlds (2,262 - 2,274 A.D) After the eight year voyages of the Chinese Empire and United Federation missions, the first touches of Human Civilization upon another solar system occurred. The Chinese Empire's Vision mission constructed an orbital dock which would launch probes throughout Alpha Centurai to explore the system for resources, extraterrestrial life and a place to begin the first planetary colony. The United Federation's Voyager mission instead deployed a small docking facility at a lagrange point around the planet of Hope. On the Verge of War (2,274 - 2,276 A.D) In 2,274 A.D. the Proxima Centurai and Alpha Centurai had combined a total of five nations with activities in their systems. In total, the number of Human nations involved in this intergalactic space race were; * Chinese Republic (China) * United Federation (USA) * Indian Republic (India) * European Federation (EU) * Brazilian Empire (Brazil) The activity in the Sol System as a result of these extra missions had came to the point where nations was now once again attempting to actively stop or delay foreign space-faring missions. Although not actively at war, many nations had a deep sense of rivalry between each other and the expansion into neighbouring star systems gave them the chance to compete with each other. Indeed, the failure to compete would lead to many nations being considered of a lower standard than those who actively pursued space exploration beyond the Sol System. Two of the three nations expanding onto this new frontier (Indian Republic and Brazilian Empire) both expanded into the Alpha Centurai system. However the third, European Federation, instead chose to expand into Proxima Centurai due to it's closer distance to Sol. Other nations had mixed reactions of this because of the lack of resources expected to be found within the Proxima Centurai system compared to the slightly further Alpha Centurai system. The reasoning for the European Federation was that it had taken them several years longer to launch their own space missions and with the time saved in communications and delivering supplies, they hoped to catch up faster with their rivals. The Declaration of Hope (2,289 A.D) After years of heightened tension and the seemingly nearing future conflict between nations, the United Nations set up the Declaration of Hope. Named after the planet of Hope where incursions had escalated the tension in recent years and the hope for peace, the Declaration signed between the nations agreed to share the space between the outposts in Alpha Centurai and the Sol System. On top of this, the nations also agreed that they would not hinder peaceful space missions from all nations and all would respect the right of exploration and establishing of outposts. Purposely left out of this declaration was the subject of who actually owned the planets and moons currently occupied by the first nations. In turn, the Declaration did resolve much of the conflict between the nations and also in turn revolutionised the expansion of the Human Race beyond the Sol System. With no longer a need for governments to be leading each space mission, technology which had been in the reserve of space agencies and militaries slowly got transferred into the business and civilian markets. Many businesses were privatised who were previously backed by nation states who wished to exploit the resources or support the growth found in the new outposts. Mining, Trading and even Exploration began to be increasingly in the domain of private companies even if some were still state supported. This also fuelled a massive population growth for the outposts with the new influx of jobs and investment available. Many conclude that this was the beginning of the blueprint for Human expansion. The Expansion of Nations The Expansion from the Home Worlds After nearly a century of rapid expansion and colonization, the Human race expanded further and further outwards. This was led by a United Nations Resolution which supported the rights of ownership and claims by Nation states on space itself outside of the Home Worlds. It also gave nations on the United Nations Space Council the right to claim star systems expanding outwards for five-hundred light years from the edge of the Home Worlds. All of the nations on the Council expanded based on the claims given to them even though there was some criticism about the distance of some star systems from Sol. After several decades, many nations, but primarily those on the Council had expanded far beyond the Centurai systems. The fuel of this expansion was the resources in these new systems which could be many times more what the current nations were expected to be producing on their own. Outposts and Colonies were established in these new frontiers and resources not only shipped back towards previous settlements and the Sol System but also used to further expansion and growth in these new regions of space. The continuing development of Faster-than-light (FTL) drives kept pushing exploration further outwards and the establishing of Space Lanes, including use of Jump Gates, further accelerated the movement of resources and peoples. The Galactic Age (2,821 A.D+) The Galactic Age was considered to be the time when most of the major expansion had been conducted by the Nations from Earth. There was still small scale exploration and expansion being conducted but this was mostly on already claimed territories and by corporations and peoples rather than the states themselves. With the vast Jump Gate network providing a means for trillions of people to get from one side of the Galaxy to the other, development grew faster than in any other period of human history. What had once been considered Colonies were now fully-fledged regions, no longer fuelled from the Home Worlds but instead, self-supporting. Terraforming had become a viable option over the last couple of hundred years with methods being perfected and worlds becoming habitable for humans. The planets in a zone around their stars where humans could live without protective gear quickly became the largest and fuelled growth in their regions. Furthermore, the Home Worlds continued to be the centre of Government for most nations and where most trade and peoples lived. The Frontier Virus (2,872 A.D) Spread of the Plague The Frontier Virus was an epidemic which quickly destroyed 60% of the human race within the first three days of the outbreak. Nobody knows where the Virus originally came from, some suggest it was ancient Alien bacteria and some a Bio weapon release. What is known however is that the virus travelled from somewhere on the edge of the frontier, the limit of human exploration, and was spread unnoticed into the Home Worlds. The virus itself had no symptoms at all from five days to a week from infection and this allowed it to be spread amongst much of the human race throughout the galaxy. The well-established space lanes which bulged with traffic, taking supplies, resources and peoples throughout the galaxy now became the arteries for the virus to spread. When the virus was first discovered, it had simultaneously infected nine Star Systems and many of these did not employ full border controls or quarantine measures. As such, by the time the severity of the virus had been noted, it was too late for many of the populous regions. There was a great alarm and work on a vaccine was started by pretty much every nation, sometimes part of a multi-national project and other times just by the nations themselves. Although a cure was found within the first week of the outbreak, the development and delivery was delayed with the panic spreading throughout the galaxy. With so many restrictions in place, the cure could not be developed in time or delivered fast enough to prevent such a large catastrophe. The first regions to be infected had already gone dark by the end of that week and the Home Worlds had already lost most control over the virus. Although treatment reportedly began in the Home Worlds, the lack of labs now able to produce the cure led to the Home Worlds going dark by the end of the second week. Over on the other side of the galaxy where time had given people a chance, the cure had been delivered around the same time as the plague. Nations, Systems or even Planets on their own began replicating the cure in an attempt to survive. It was around this time a notable increase in criminal activity also began. Not only was people desperate to get a cure or vaccination for themselves and their families, criminals and people settled in outposts not aligned to a nation regularly conducted attacks onto planets and vessels containing the cure. Many of these systems only had a small defence force and many were unable to maintain control and order over their own populations and the systems they were attempting to protect. This matter was made worse when the Home Worlds fell silent and the Jump Gate network deactivated. Silence of the Jump Gates When the Jump Gates had been developed, it was by the University of New Amsterdam who sold the project and development rights off to the European Federation. With the technology fully developed and Jump Gates being constructed, the use of internal flight maps for starships became rare. Only exploration ships with their own FTL-drives and scanning equipment had the need for a dedicated map. Instead, the Jump Gates transmitted a localised region of space to all starships in the area, providing real-time traffic flow information and navigation. The system worked well while the Jump Gates were connected, but once the Home Worlds fell silent, the Jump Gates turned silent. Entire Regions of space were suddenly cut off from one another and panic, famine, wars and lawlessness became common features across the surviving human race. Category:History